First Day of Pre K

Samuel started Pre K last week. He has been ready for so long and especially after Nathan started school a couple of weeks before he did. We love the preschool at our church. It was such a great experience for Nathan, and I'm so excited to experience all the fun again with Samuel. He has great teachers. His teacher from last year is one of his teachers and his other teacher was a Kindergarten teacher at Nathan's school last year. I know he's going to have a great year!

The night before his first day, we took him out to eat for a special dinner to celebrate. He loved being the center of attention for the night.

And he was ready to go on his first day.

He was excited to check out his new class and had an awesome first day!

He's most excited about the fish tank in his class and not having to take naps at school, ha! He also said he liked music class and playing on the playground. He couldn't wait to show me all his crafts and tell me about his new journal. He couldn't wait to go back on Thursday.

I'm loving Samuel's personality lately. He's really coming out of his shell. He's not as shy and not content to hang in his brother's shadow as much. He's talkative and friendly. He happily introduces himself to new friends and finds new friends anywhere we go.

He has excellent fine motor skills. He loves to draw and is such a perfectionist. If he makes a "mistake" on a drawing, he wants to start all over. He's not super motivated to work on knowing his letters, but his handwriting impresses everyone. He loves to write his name on all his crafts.

Unlike his sister, he gets bored watching shows for very long and would prefer to play. He plays well by himself and likes any toy that involves building. He likes puzzles and playing outside and being with his brother and sister. 

He's my only kid that likes cereal for breakfast and the only one who likes orange juice. He runs down the stairs every morning and the first thing he does is to come find me and give me a big hug. He's so excited about having a new baby sister and talks about helping with her and playing with her all the time. He's affectionate and funny and just a great kid all around. I can't wait to watch him learn and grow and mature this year in Pre K.

I did the same back to school survey with him that I've been doing with Nathan.

How old are you?

 4

What is your favorite color?

Orange

What is your favorite food?

Macaroni and Cheese

What is your favorite TV show

Paw Patrol

What is your favorite holiday?

Summer

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?

Play on the playground

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?

Play Kitchen

What is your favorite thing to do with Nathan?

Play in my room

What is your favorite thing to do with Elisabeth?

Play in my room

What are you most excited about this year in school?

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Construction Worker

What is your favorite movie?

Beauty and the Beast

What is your favorite toy?

Cars that I build

What is your favorite thing to wear?

Dinosaur shirt

While he was at school on Wednesday, Elisabeth and I had a girls' day. I'm savoring some one on one time with her before Katherine joins in on our girls' days while the boys are at school. I had a doctor appointment, and she tagged along with me. Even after we spent all morning playing babies and princesses and doll house, she told me that the best part of our girls' day was getting to watch her kindle at the doctor office. That's a big treat for her, apparently.

Elisabeth got her turn for a first day of school on Thursday. She gets to go one day a week this year and she has the same teacher that both the boys had when they were three. I was talking to her teacher about the first year she had Nathan, and Elisabeth was teeny tiny and I drug that double stroller in the school to drop off Nathan each week. These kiddos are growing up too fast!

She was ready for school and had a great day too, and I enjoyed my five hours of no kids to get lots of errands and chores accomplished.

We're ready for a great school year and to settle into our new Fall routine.

Celebrating Katherine

Our Sunday School class hosted a sweet Baby Shower for me last week. I so enjoyed getting to celebrate our Baby Katherine with a fun girls' night. My good friend Leslie hosted and every detail was just perfect. She has such a gift for hospitality.

I'm so grateful for these friends for hosting.

Elisabeth was THRILLED to get to go to Baby Katherine's party, especially since it was at Audrey's house. She had the best time playing, eating, and helping me open gifts.

These two have such a cute friendship.

I had a great time visiting with friends, snacking on delicious food and feeling spoiled by so many gifts for Katherine. We got lots of diapers, which is mostly all we need and a few special things to finish up her nursery.

Elisabeth was opening gifts so fast, I could hardly even see what we got before she moved on to the next one. It was just like her birthday party. She loves to open presents!

We've been so blessed with the friendships in our Sunday school class, and it was such a sweet night celebrating our newest Little Blessing. We can't wait for her to get here!

First Day of First Grade

 Summer ended for Nathan last week, but he was so excited to start the First Grade! He mentioned being bummed that he couldn't play at home all day with his toys, but that he was ready for school to start.

He asked for cinnamon rolls for breakfast on the first day of school.

 He wanted to wear his new school shirt and the sticker he got from his teacher at Meet the Teacher night. He said he saved it, so he could wear it on the first day of school.

 Brother and Sister wanted to be in the pictures too. They sure miss him when he's not at home.

 Nathan jumped for joy when he walked into his class and saw his buddy Joey. They were friends in Pre-K and I remember being so sad last year that they weren't in the same class. We were all so excited that this year they get to be together.

 And Nathan has SO many friends from Kindergarten in his class this year. All these boys were together last year, and they were all Nathan's good friends in his class. He's going to have a great year!

 Dropping him off at First Grade was so much easier than Kindergarten. No tears from me (and I'm pregnant, so that's saying something, ha!). The boys didn't help when all morning Nathan kept saying, "Samuel next year you get to go to school with me."

 We made some cookies for a special after school snack for our First Grader.

 Nathan came home so excited about his day. He said a couple of times, "I really like school." He was ready to go back on Friday.

I caught this sweet moment between the boys walking to school on Friday. They were talking about how long Nathan would be gone and that they'd miss each other but that Nathan got to stay home all day on Saturday. Then Nathan told Samuel not to mess with his Legos while he was at school. Brothers! Ha!

 We're excited for a great year. I already miss our lazy mornings watching all three kids play together, but I'm also looking forward to a more structured schedule and everything Nathan will learn in the first grade.

I did a little back to school survey with him last year and decided to do it again

How old are you?

 6

What is your favorite color?

Orange

What is your favorite food?

Pizza

What is your favorite TV show

YouTube

What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?

Eat a Snow Cone

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?

Play Legos

What is your favorite thing to do with Samuel?

Play with his construction Legos

What is your favorite thing to do with Elisabeth?

Build with her

What are you most excited about this year in school?

Christmas Party

What are you most nervous about this year in school?

A really hard test

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Fire Fighter

What is your favorite movie?

Beauty and the Beast

What is your favorite toy?

Legos

What is your favorite thing to wear?

Costumes

Who are you going to marry when you grow up?

Kodi (Klassen)

The End of Summer

August has been full of lots of fun as summer started to wind down.

We've made several stops at the library this summer. The kids loved doing the summer reading program.

Legos, legos, legos. All summer. The most common phrase in our house this summer has been, "Mommy, can you help me find a piece?"

I got to spend a special day with my almost Pre-K boy, and I soaked it up. We went to Hobby Lobby and picked out a car that he got to assemble and paint.

He did a great job and was so proud of it!

And we built with Duplos of course.

We also went to lunch. It was a great day.

We spent a great evening with friends too soaking up the summer nights.

The kids got to ride in the back of the truck to the pool. They were thrilled!

Brooke and I let the dads take over pool duty and we sat in lawn chairs and visited. We laughed that it was almost like we were on a cruise again. almost.

Then we came back and rode bikes and ate dessert.

It's SO hard to separate the kids when it's time to leave. They have so much fun together. It was the perfect summer night. We love our friends!

Nathan participated in a music camp at our church the first week of August. He went every morning for a week and then had a big performance Sunday night. He loved it so much, and I was so impressed with their singing. He's already ready for next year.

He was especially impressed with the root beer floats after the performance, ha!

I love this sweet note from my boy. I feel the same way, Buddy!

Sister has been working very hard on learning to obey the first time. She finally earned enough beads for obeying the first time that she got her surprise. She was proud!

We squeezed in some end of summer play dates with our favorite friends.

The morning the kids and I visited Emma and Grant (and Baby Luke), Brett was home and offered to take all five kids to the park/splash pad while Michelle and I stayed back in the air conditioning. We were so thankful. The kids had a blast with their best friends, and Michelle and I got to sit and visit uninterrupted for a couple of hours. So fun! And Brett even sent pictures to us.

Samuel and Elisabeth started gymnastics again. They get to be in the same class this year, which is super convenient.

And I get some one on one time with this kid while they're in their class. We played Go Fish and read books.

The end of summer will always mean celebrating a birthday girl in our family. She was so excited to be THREE!

We had church plans the night of her birthday, so we celebrated with a lunch at Chick Fil A.

And we had her favorite dinner, of course. We had spaghetti and meatballs and popsicles for dessert.

She loved being the center of attention all day and getting special treatment (no chores, always getting to choose what we did for the day). She had a rude awakening the next morning when it wasn't her birthday anymore. There were tears, ha!

This boy graduated out of the preschool ministry at our church this month. This was his last Sunday downstairs. He's pumped. I'm a little weepy but excited for all he'll learn in the Kids Ministry.

We had a few more jammy days to close out summer. These three had so many great moments of playing together this summer.

Nathan had his first official sleepover with Wyatt right before school started. They were so excited and felt so big! They had the best night. I heard giggling way past their bedtime.

We can't wait to do it again (and the Little Brothers are set on joining in this time too!)

 This girl always wants to put on a show!



Elisabeth gets to do ballet again this Fall and she is thrilled to have one of her favorite friends in her class. She told me, "I had so much fun with Audrey in my ballet class." She shines in ballet. I love it!

We had an awesome summer. I'm sad it's over, but we have a pretty exciting Fall to look forward to :)